Cold-stunned sea turtles recovering in Ponce Inlet

Dozens of cold-stressed sea turtles were delivered to balmy Central Florida on Friday from New England, where they're being rescued in record numbers this year.

DINAH VOYLES PULVERENVIRONMENT WRITER

Dozens of cold-stressed sea turtles were delivered to balmy Central Florida on Friday from New England, where they're being rescued in record numbers this year. The turtles were flown into Orlando and then distributed across Florida, with five loggerhead turtles taken to the Volusia County Marine Science Center in Ponce Inlet and 20 turtles to SeaWorld Orlando's rehabilitation facility. Early season cold-temperatures in New England created a huge influx of stunned sea turtles this season, said Tony LaCasse, spokesman for the New England Aquarium, where the turtles were treated before being flown to Florida. The aquarium gets turtles every year, but this year the "season" is a little more than halfway over and the aquarium has already treated 150 endangered and federally protected turtles, a record number, LaCasse said. As soon as the aquarium staff saw the turtles off Friday morning, they were greeted by a few new rescued turtles, LaCasse said. "The conga line hasn't ended yet." The turtles arrived in Central Florida by a Coast Guard plane, in a flight arranged by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees sea-turtle protection. SeaWorld provided the truck to drive the loggerheads to Ponce Inlet, said Science Center Manager Michael Brothers. Staff from the center immediately began to examine the turtles and assess their health status. The aquarium has a new $4.5 million, "state of the art" facility, LaCasse said, and has capacity to treat about 100 sea turtles. But they've received more than 100 just in the last 10 days. They've been moving turtles to other facilities throughout their region, he said. Complicating matters is the higher than normal number of large loggerheads they're receiving, more than five times the normal half-dozen or so they see during a normal season, aquarium officials said. The Marine Science Center, in Ponce Inlet, has the space and expertise to handle the larger loggerheads, Brothers said. During a local cold-stranding event in 2010, the Science Center treated more than 60 cold-stunned sea turtles. Three other facilities in Florida also received turtles from the aquarium on Friday.[